Al Cohn and Zoot Sims in London in 1968, with Stan Tracey on piano, Dave Green on bass and Phil Seamen on drums … Video

Tenor-saxophone duos were common in the late 1940s, ’50s and into the ’60s. They often were promoted as “tenor battles” by record labels, but more often than not the two reed players were working together to create great music.

Such duos included Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin, and Arnett Cobb and Buddy Tate. Among the best known pairing was Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. There isn’t much video of these two going at it. Which is why I was surprised to find a clip of them on YouTube playing Hal David and Burt Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now and Billy Byers’s Doodle Oodle.

Al and Zoot in London in 1968, with Stan Tracey on piano, Dave Green on bass and Phil Seamen on drums…